October 2014 – CDTalent Enterprises

Sorry, Just Won’t Do It

October 17, 2014by gshorkeyblt2Leave a Comment

I read an amazing bit of journalism this morning, an at-length piece on what they call The Inland Empire, about the proliferation– to tune of almost *15 million sq. ft./year* of warehouse space in California’s Moreno Valley. The nut was the pollution caused by massive volume of trucks in and around the area, which is also ‘at the end of the tailpipe’ of what gets blown out of LA across the Valley.

Respiratory problems of the people involved is significant, as is bribery of officials who continue to allow building of warehouses, which are a transmission point for goods arriving from Asia, to all points pretty much west of Chicago. One committee member (Mr. Co) is accused of taking the largest bribe in FBI sting history, $2.36 million. That he’s been out and about over a year since his arrest leads many to believe he’s been wearing a wire, so I wasn’t listening that much to those delineated as ‘bad actors’ in story proclaiming their innocence– time enough for that later.

I wanted to comment about the great journalistic effort, might have considered reposting, because while the pollution and negatives mentioned don’t affect me in Charlotte, NC, I reposted as much of Glenn Greenwalds Snowden/gov’t surveillance stuff as I could, because important stuff should be brought to light wherever its found. I didn’t post a comment, because Facebook login meant they get to look at not only MY information, but my entire Friends list.

I don’t do much on FB, in spite of many HS acquaintences contacting me in this year before reunion. I *HATE* the idea I can’t make a comment without putting a bunch of other names on the line. I’m writing as an individual– what right do I have to say, “check out/use the info from anyone else I know”?

Maybe its a useless consideration on my part, because theres no telling how many others are simply pushing the button and allowing my name on some list so they can post elsewhere. But for those I know, I’ll do what little I can to protect you. And yes, I will always appreciate good journalism.

Glenn S.

Sports

Gorgeous Fall Day, Bro Left Game Before Big Ending

October 7, 2014February 2, 2015by gshorkeyblt2Leave a Comment

Having gone to neighborhood pocket park with good rims down the street to shoot some hoops after a disappointing first half of Panthers game, its a little two-faced to fault my brother for leaving Panther-Bank of America Stadium before the really good stuff happened at the game yesterday. I haven’t researched how crowds reacted elsewhere in NFL during a day that involved several amazing rallies, but I have noted Charlotteans early departures from games; to me it seems a basic un-goodness to bail on events, even when the home team isn’t covering themselves in glory. (Stinking out the joint in a driving rain, ya got a case…)

My real regret for the day was denying two young– maybe 11-12– black men the chance to shoot with me and swap some sports talk. A lot of times, if people have their own ball (they did) they use basket at other end, but they’d given theirs to two younger kids, the obvious assumption being we’d just use mine. It was a dumb case of bad social grace that I decided splitting shots in the limited time I’d allowed myself wouldn’t quite work for me. Forget about any gimpy knee, my lack of real schedule could’ve allowed for extra time to get my ya-yas and still be a good guy, sharing time and opinions, because those guys had opinions about LeBron and upcoming NBA season, and I’ll usually yak with anybody about sports.

I promise I’ll do better the next time, just like I’ll do good about buying a bicycle tube, the second half of a necessary repair job after pulling a major piece of steel out a two-week unfixed flat Saturday morning.

Putting those three events in perspective, not expecting a miracle finish from the Panthers wasn’t the most negative thing. The *best* was tight end Greg Olsentell the post-game sideline reporter having his 2-year old son TJ– who recently had a 4th heart procedure– on the field during pre-game warmups meant more than catching a game-winning 2nd TD against his former team (Bears). You can never go wrong feeling good about stuff like that.

Glenn Shorkey

Business

That’s What LinkedIn Should Be For

October 1, 2014October 2, 2014by gshorkeyblt2Leave a Comment

Getting a private, positive response yesterday as a direct result of an online discussion (Global Executive Assistants) validates what I’ve believed LinkedIn was supposed to be about. While there are still too many ‘PLEASE read my blog!’ type messages on writing sites I utilize, articulating my objections about what should-shouldn’t be included on CV-resumes got a specific unfairness off my chest as strongly as I wanted. Based on comments from others and that indicator of attention I needed, it hit a righteous chord.

Given that *everyone* says recruiters only give resumes a scant 6-8 seconds attention, and resumes aren’t supposed to go past 12-15 years at the max, my point was 6.5 years of retail work that paid bills-put food on the table-gas in the car-allowed for occasional road trip vacations during The Great Recession was apparently DQing me from consideration for executive assistant level positions handled prior to 2007. That contract work, which was my case from 1995-2000 after leaving regional sales rep positions, of less than six months shouldn’t be included– even if it involved learning a significant skill– was a deal-killer many applicants recognize. Most recruiters, and even a *computer generated notation* for one application I labored on, still pick at EVERY TIME GAP, making for a Catch-22 situation.

Having illuminated that frustrating situation won’t change 99% of recruiters methodology. When I first changed from being a ‘windshield warrior’ to getting results driving a desk in 1995, it was mandatory that you do alllll the paperwork with an agency (it still screws up applications to put ‘multiple agencies’ under Employer, because who remembers origin of each assignment ?) and test on software before anyone would talk to you. Now, even after going through online on-boarding process for a major temp-placement operation, the recruiter stonewalled an office visit 3x in one phone call because “there’s no sense WASTING your time or mine” to determine how jobs that barely made it– no description or dates, just the position– onto a page might make me a better candidate. *I* sure wouldn’t think its a waste, not when most EA ads involve ‘Exceptional verbal- written communications skills’ in the description, something barely scratched on Page 1 that is a HUGE strength of mine, much higher order than being current on learnable software.

I’m going with the positives though. I’ve followed that particular lady for a while, and now I’ve done something that attracted her personal interest; a guy whose house I’ve played several Hold ’em poker tournaments at is a recruiter and he’s also looking at my material. That recruiter who said “all we have” is a survey situation for a Republican project and a tele-marketing deal up-selling dating site users to full membership, wow, his whole office must be starving. Guess he should have some extra time to read deeper into resumes then, right?

Glenn S.